Dumbo is Down in the Lab, Talking to Dracula & His Krewe

The Rich Cultural History of AlternaBlasts seems to have struck at least a small nerve, a few comments either finding joy in the blasts or dismissing them outright. I was happy to hear from everyone, but there was one that really stood out. It was from a reader who posts around here fairly often and goes by the name of K. K explored my personal blog a bit and made a statement expressing the idea that Frank Luntz & Rush Limbaugh were kindred spirits to a popular occult organization. Mindzappers! That train of thought pushed me towards other famous occultists, at least ones that admit to it.

Sure, traditionally you have your Jimmy Pages, Kenneth Angers and Jack Parsons (founder of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory!) William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin both used the tech of their time to cast spells. Gustav Jung had esoteric interests and tendencies. In the present day we have NPR's Margot Adler, a witch; comic book superstars Alan Moore and Grant Morrison are both practicing wizards. Daryl Hall had interest in Aleister Crowley and recorded a song with Fripp based on his teachings. Oo-ee-oo. Fairuza Balk, famous for her starring role in the movie The Craft was once owner of Panpipes Magickal Marketplace, the United States' oldest occult store. Even hip hoppers are into it! Jay Z, Kanye West & Beyonce have all been linked to the satanic illuminati conspiracy! Or not!

So yeah, these people are all in plain view, but the very word occult means hidden so there must be others that aren't that open about their interests... Some think it is such a vast conspiracy you could just pull a name out of the air. What about, say, Walt Disney?

Years ago I was an active member of the online community Barbelith, a gathering place for geeks cut to a certain cloth to discuss weird stuff in general. Lots of members were Philip K. Dick freaks and in an discussion of the movie inside the book Valis an interesting post appeared:

I was a member of a secretive international magical society for five years, and on my initiation to (what I then believed to be) the highest and scariest of its grades, it was revealed to me by my order-superiors that Dumbo – yes, that Dumbo – is in fact an esoteric text on magic, drugs, initiation, and the future of human life on the planet Earth and beyond, Tim Leary/ RAWilson style.

I don’t believe that it would be a significant violation of my magical oaths to drop a hint or two concerning the “initiated” reading of this movie. (I bloody well hope it’s not a violation of my oaths – they were pretty darned specific about what the painful and bizarre consequences would be.)

In the story, Dumbo’s mutation is considered to be a useless, freakish handicap. The potential power that Dumbo possesses goes unseen, by him and by everyone else, in the social reality-tunnel of the world he’s born into (the “circus"). He ends up fulfilling the lowest of the roles available to him in that reality-tunnel: the clown; the “butt”, in fact, of the other clowns’ pratfall routines, good only for being on the receiving end of a custard pie (“Shit-Dumbo! Ass-elephant!").

Dumbo then happens to accidentally ingest a hallucinogenic drug. A psychedelic vision ensues…his reality-tunnel breaks down…and joining him for the ride is his “familiar”, a set of eyes that doesn’t belong to the circus, a small voice that tells Dumbo a different “story” about who he is…

A gap in memory. And the next thing Dumbo remembers is waking up at the top of a very tall tree. How did he end up here? His “familiar” guesses the truth: He flew. Dumbo has the power of flight. That’s what his big ears are for.

At first Dumbo finds it difficult to change his perception of who he is; of the extent of his powers. His familiar introduces him to the world of “ceremonial magick”, and with the assistance of a magickal prop, Dumbo manages – without the use of drugs – to fly.

Eventually, Dumbo manages to manifest his powers even without the use of the paraphernalia of ceremonial magick.

And the heaviest of animals takes to the sky.

The nightmarish “pink elephants” are just those parts of ourselves – the scary, powerful parts – that we forgot to include when we were drawing the map of who we are.

Ganesha breaks the gravity-chains, smashes through the cages of the circus, soars above the train.

Our starry destiny.

A vision of our Mercury-nature so compassionate, so gently teasing, so *loving*, that it makes me break down crying.

(...On a more sinister note, there are hints in the movie about the involvement of the military in Dumbo's evolution.)

PKD wasn't referencing Dumbo in Valis but it was the same idea, people in the know sending coded messages to acolytes. Hidden truths are plain as day when pointed out! Or you can also argue that our histories of myth and symbols are so thick and varied that you can decode ancient hyperborean truths in Dear Abby columns or Wiki Answers.

Since this post was inspired by a commenter I am very curious about what you think, and also would love to hear about other fairly hidden secret doctrines of popular culture.

Because we are hanging out on the WFMU blog I present Sun Ra's version of Pink Elephants synched to the scene from the film -

Sun Ra - Pink Elephants

Still working on the best of Brooklyn Botanicas list, hopefully next time.

Comments

[Listener bkd]

You want to visit The Vigilant Citizen, and in particular, their blog, Vigilant Citizen Reports:
http://vigilantcitizen.com/?cat=1

[A156]

Walt was a Mason, so it doesn't seem that far off that "Dumbo", as well as "Fantasia", "Sleeping Beauty" and other Disney flicks have an occult meaning.
Then again, if one reads Joseph Campbell's "Hero With a thousand Faces" we learn that all stories tend to come from mythology.
Hell, George Lucas has admitted that the main mythological tale told throughout Campbell's book (the hero's journey, his self-discovery, and later triumph against dark forces) was used as the main plot in "Star Wars". So, it isn't just Disney, as it's almost everywhere.

[Nate Pest Control Utah Guy]

Off the topic- I've heard for years that there are supposed explicit phrases or images inserted into some Disney movies... such as the "take off your clothes" comment somewhere in Aladdin. Is that true?

[Vince Evans]

Super interesting. I am going to watch Dumbo, because last time I watched it(probably about 9 years old), I obviously was oblivious to any of these types of themes. Is there supposed to be underlying messages like this in all Disney movies?

[Brian Turner]

I was just at Disney World two weeks ago and I'm still coming to terms with how freaked out I got.

[K.]

A156 makes a good point; when all you have is a hammer, everything tends to look like a nail. So there are some adepts here looking for initiation? Well, here's a piece of occult knowledge revealed for your amusement/edification.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PKjF7OumYo

Try to keep an open mind when you watch it, and follow the words of the instructress carefully ( sophia's words are slippery and some mental preparation is required to grasp the meaning and not fall back asleep ). Try to keep these thoughts in your head today as you go about your business. Realize that these unseen things are the prime driver of the living things you see around you. The fundamental reality of life is the machinery shown in this short clip.

[Soulboyluis]

Well, A156 made a point about Star Wars, and The Force is based in a Hindu concept. Yer man K presented a link to a really quite good movie about DNA, and both have their crossovers.
I wonder if humankind were to understand the forces that motivate him/her as a living entity, he/she would have read more, thought more, or just been more. Other than that, there is no escape from not getting a grip.
I often wondered about the crossover from technology to magic,like Arthur C.Clarke postulates - "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
Sometimes, technology is justing finding out what possiblities there are. The magic is just beyond what we presently have proven, no?

[Comic Dork Bob]

Pretty sure that Lucas got the idea for the force from Jack Kirby's New Gods, but there it was called "The Source."

[motherandcatandpleasureis3,1]

To soulboyluis: I am not sure that using the word "humankind", the sentence "he/she would have read more, thought more, or just been more", your stupid pseudo-hypnotizing picture can give you the place on the mountain of knowledge.
Through your words, your picture are the vanity of knowledge and power only.You are thousands on internet to use the same "magik" of power, thousands and more!
The only thing I can see through your words it is you want to dominate.It is a wrong place...We are not enough slaves to keep all the thousands magik people on the mountain!
You are falling down down down:)

[Steven]

Cool video, K. Always listen when Sophia speaks. Caduceus?

Soulboylous, you may be interested in the book Vodou Quantum Leap by Reginald Crosley, a physician who grew up surrounded by houngans and mambos, he says that all the weird parts of new sciences (chaos theory, quantum mechanics, etc.) have already been mapped out in the vodou religion. Fun and informative.

Kind of bummed no wacked theories from people claiming that the movie House Party 2 is a thinly veiled explanation of what really happened to Anastasia Romanov or Three Amigos is the secret history of the American space program...

[Arthur Castro]

I don't know if you'd consider this hidden doctrine or not, but here's an essay I wrote (influenced by LSD) on 2001 A Space Odyssey and the famed Toynbee tiles, Arnold J. Toynbee, Resurrecting the dead on Jupiter and other related subjects.

http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=74727287&blogId=327713194

[spacebrother]

Nice post.

A friend of mine wrote a piece on the occult significance of "Green Eggs and Ham" for a magazine I published a few years ago.

http://www.excludedmiddle.com/occulted_dr._seuss.htm

My personal (only half-joking) theory is that the Disney animators were on psychedelics and were heavily supervised, while the people at Warner Brothers were not supervised at all and were all drunks. This shows in the animation style and subject matter.

[Arthur Castro]

I agree with Spacebrother, the Disney team definately seem at times as if they were on psychedlics. Ofcourse we have Fantasia, Alice In Wonderland and Dumbo... there's also Winnie The Pooh's Blustery Day with The Heffalumps and Woozles dream sequence, and then Donald Duck's Peyote-esque ending in The Three Caballeros where his dreams of exotic Latin-cuties lulling him with ballads turns into a bad trip with murderous screams, guns blairing, demon-like bulls and an array of colors rapidly flashing on the screen before he explodes bringing "the end" credit up.

Speaking of Disney... this comic has been making the rounds comparing Inception with this older Disney comic:
http://disneycomics.free.fr/Ducks/Rosa/show.php?num=1&loc=D2002-033&s=date